Days, Months, Years
by xx-risque
Summary: They met when they were thirteen. [nanowrimo warmup / first homestuck fic/ficlet] T for a few cusses because I'm paranoid.


They're thirteen years old when they first meet; Dave is the new kid from the South who wears sunglasses too big for his face and John is the idiot with braces and a tendency to fall over his own feet. Their lockers are next to each other, and they're in most of the same classes and both of them really suck at gym, but they don't talk.

They're fourteen years old when they speak to each other for the first time. Or rather, John talks to Dave. It's not much, a few words when John trips over himself and stumbles into Dave, pushing him into the lockers. He apologizes, and Dave shrugs, nods, picks up his bag and walks away. John frowns after him, but realizes then that he has to get to know him.

By the time they're fifteen they're actually kind of friends; enough to instant message and to have acknowledged each other with Facebook friendship, but John doesn't see it coming when he suddenly discovers a notification from Dave that just says _will you go out with me_ in his trademark red text. He blushes and tries to be coy, responds with _only if you ask me in person! :P _He doesn't expect Dave to stop him in the halls the next day to pull him aside and shakily sign an offer of pizza and a movie.

When they're sixteen, they have their first fight. John is suddenly sick of Dave's knack of avoiding conflict, and takes to shouting at him on the bus ride home. He doesn't know why he's surprised when Dave gets off at the next stop –even though he doesn't normally leave until four stops ahead- but he curses at him nonetheless. Dave hears him and hangs his head, but John doesn't see and is even more annoyed when Dave refuses to speak to him, or even text him.

They haven't spoken for nearly a year when they turn seventeen, and John finally drags his head out of his ass for long enough to stop Dave at his locker and ask if he's okay. John presses when he nods curtly, signing clumsily to ask if he's sure. Dave signs back that he isn't sure, his hands moving deftly as he suggests they talk after school. John agrees, and they meet at the bus stop and Dave explains with fumbling fingers that no, he's not okay and he wishes he'd spoken to John sooner, and if he'll have him then he'd like to try again. John grabs his hand to stop him rambling and nods furiously.

They go to prom together when they're eighteen; Dave's brother insists on photographing them from every single angle and in every single room of the apartment, even when Dave keeps making quick, snappy remarks with a flourish of his hands. John's father keeps saying that he's so proud of him, and Dave laughs his breathless, silly little laugh and John bops him around the head. Dave wins prom king, salutes the rest of their graduating class in his cheap plastic crown before he curtseys with his queen, a cackling blind girl called Terezi, before he sweeps John off his feet and dances with him to cheesy Aerosmith songs. They kiss outside the school hall when the town clock strikes twelve.

They're living together in a tiny apartment in Seattle when they're nineteen. It's three floors up and is basically two rooms and a separate bathroom but it's their little slice of the American dream and it's enough. Dave can't walk three steps without stumbling over a pile of John's biology textbooks, and it took the both of them half a day to wedge Dave's turntables into the spare room, but it's home. Dave writes cuss words with the letter magnets on the fridge and John always groans and moves them, sticking up notes to buy milk or call his dad or book a table at that nice restaurant across town they both like.

When they're twenty, Dave finds himself down on one knee and giving John a tiny, velvet blue box to hold while he signs _I love you so much, will you marry me _with shaking, delicate fingers. John cries as he says yes, sliding the ring onto his finger and hugging Dave tight with his tiny arms. The people in the restaurant applaud, because if they didn't understand before they sure as hell do now, when John calls his dad in the middle of dinner and screams _oh my god dad I'm getting married _at the top of his voice. Dave laughs, breathless and face pink, as John talks animatedly with his father.

They turn twenty-one just after they get married. It's a little service in a small chapel a few towns over, and Dave signs his handwritten vows and John cries like a baby when he says _thank you so much for giving me that second chance when we were kids. I love you so much and I can't wait to introduce you as my husband._ Dave's brother films the whole thing and presents them with a beautifully edited copy of it as a present a few days after the service, with two tickets for a holiday in Spain hidden inside the case. Dave texts him to call him a stupid sentimental fuck, and John hugs him, presses a long kiss to his lips and suggests that they should probably go pack, since they're kind of supposed to fly tomorrow. Dave curses his brother again and follows John into their bedroom.

They're sprawled over towels on a beach in Greece on John's twenty-second birthday. Dave returns from his search for cocktails and ice cream to find John dozing on his towel, his book slowly slipping from his hand. Dave laughs at him, a small smile tugging up the corner of his mouth as he nudges him with his foot and offers him a drink and a cone. John smiles, all big and still kind of goofy, takes both of them and kisses him on the cheek. He takes a long lick of his ice cream and looks at Dave for a moment, and if the look in his eyes didn't say it enough then he announces it, kissing Dave's shoulder as he mumbles _I love you so much_ into his freckled skin. Dave smiles lopsidedly again, takes hold of John's hand and writes a quick _I love you too _into his skin. John almost giggles at the pressure and Dave looks at him, raises an eyebrow, and John smiles and kisses him fiercely.

Dave smiles too, and kisses him back.


End file.
